It will be `Paradise' at Millennium Park

Chicago's Millennium Park will host for five months this year an outdoor exhibition of large-scale photographs of acclaimed private and public gardens, including its own Lurie.

The park is to announce Tuesday that the exhibition, "In Search of Paradise: Great Gardens of the World," will encompass more than 65 photomurals, in a 4-foot-by-6-foot format, of gardens from 21 countries. It is to feature the work of such landscape photographers as Nicola Browne, Mick Hales, Jerry Harpur, Marijke Heuff and Andrew Larson.

The exhibition is to run from May 5 to Oct. 22 in the Boeing Galleries. The Glencoe-based Chicago Botanic Garden conceived the show; Penelope Hobhouse is serving as curator.

Among the sites expected to be featured are the Gilbert Strunck Garden in Petropolis, Brazil, the Garden of Cosmic Speculation in Dumfries, Scotland, the Garden with the Glass Wall at Garstons on the Isle of Wight, and the Dale Chihuly-designed Blue Spears at LongHouse in East Hampton, N.Y.

"We're delighted that Chicago -- a `city in a garden,' as our motto states -- can play host to an exhibition about gardens from around the world," said Lois Weisberg, the city's cultural affairs commissioner.

Boeing Co. and the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation are sponsoring the show.

The exhibition will be not many steps west of the Lurie Garden, where the park will offer free guided tours, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. every other Sunday, from May 14 to Oct. 22.

Previous photo exhibitions in the park include "The Earth from Above," "Family Album" and 2005's "Revealing Chicago."